Pink sheet executions

Discussion in 'Order Execution' started by thegazelle, Dec 28, 2006.

  1. The company that I work for went public last week. I purchased shares in an employee offering. I have a handful of shares of the company, but much to my dismay, we are traded on the pink sheets. I searched through a thread from a couple of years ago in regards to pink sheet quotes/executions, but what I was wondering was has anything really changed?

    I signed up for L2 quotes for the pinks via stockwatch, but never see anything inside the spread being quoted, even though my orders that I put through are inside the spread. For example, bid-ask is 2-3 . I put in an order to buy at $2.50, but the current bid doesn't update at any point throughout the day. From the previous thread I read on the subject, it is my understanding that bids can even cross asks without resulting in a fill. How is this possible?

    For what its worth, my broker is Scottrade. (I use others but used Scottrade because they had the quickest turnaround time on stock deposit).

    Also, Scottrade will not let me trade the pinks after hours. Is this the case with all brokerages?

    Any insight would be appreciated, even if it is directing me to read a certain book ; i'm at a loss here and feel like i'm flying without radar, especially on such a thinly traded stock.
     
  2. Your bid is to small, some otcbb you have to put a min of 500 shares, some a min of 5000 shares for them to show up on a level II or just at the best bid or ask. 100 shares wont cut it with penny stocks, you order will execute but you wont show up.
     
  3. I've put nothing up but 1000 share blocks, but never see them appear.
     
  4. whats the symbol?
     
  5. billdick

    billdick

    Amost sure:
    Pink sheets have two "market makers" - you sell to one and buy from the other. If you have sell order at $10 you can see a trade at $11 (some one just bought from the other market maker) while your buying market maker was out to lunch etc.

    I am pissed as for more than a month my buy at $3.61 has not gone thru and yet the stock has sold as low as $3.25! What ever happened to "arbitarage" ? - These two market makers should be buying and selling to each other if need be to avoid this. My order is on a little know Austrailian ADR for 2000 sh. Some days it does not trade at all, but order is not AoN.
     
  6. try place an opening order during premkt that participates in the auction. on some very illiquid issues it is the only way to get a fill.
     
  7. ElCubano

    ElCubano

    they dont have to reflect ur order and chances are they dont if there is little volume...MM's want to make the .50 cents when they get hit at 2 and reprint u at 2.50..its the nature of the beast..try routing it to different MM's ...like NITE..some may and some may not reflect...the size of the order also matters...look up MANNING RULE and read about it..peace
     
  8. Do you mean place an order before market open so that it will participate in the "opening print" ? I've got GTC orders out there, and I also place a couple at the open.
     
  9. What is the symbol, I have a Bloomberg terminal, I have access to more information than most, what is the symbol?
     
  10. In some instances some Market Makers do not have to show orders in pink sheets and OTCBB stocks, while others do. For example, I am a market maker and am transparent and show the order that the retail customer is wanting to sell at. Depends on each firm.
     
    #10     Jan 3, 2007